


Healing Crystals

by CrazyCatMeow



Series: Glitch AU: What Goes Around Comes Around [4]
Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Gen, Glitches, end dragon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29268006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyCatMeow/pseuds/CrazyCatMeow
Summary: Nobody’s perfect, even those who created the worlds. There are always flaws in the Great Code. Usually, they’re avoided, or ignored, and when the next update comes, those flaws are gone. Some, though, are exploited for Player benefit.With the most recent update, something about working with these glitches has changed. Work with them too long... and the world will start glitching you.Cub has always enjoyed the immortal end crystals, but they aren't made to move all that often.
Relationships: n/a
Series: Glitch AU: What Goes Around Comes Around [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042692
Comments: 12
Kudos: 46





	Healing Crystals

  
Floating down to the ground of the main end island Cub carefully places the end crystals down and prepares to shoot as soon as the crystals he needs have spawned in. If he’s too late on this part, he’ll have to fight the dragon and start all over. Once the crystal is moved out of its place he stops summoning the dragon. 

Using Redstone he pushes the crystal through the portal. As he jumps in after his breath catches in his throat. Shaking the odd feeling off he pushes the crystal onto one of the quartz pedestals of his garden. 

Spreading his Elytra he jumps into the air and heads back to the end. Repeating the process three more times. By the end of the process, there’s an odd nagging in the back of his mind. Something feels like it’s gone really wrong. 

Frowning he ignores the feeling and continues to gather quartz for the shop. 

“Hey Scar,” The pharaoh waves as the wizard clumsily lands next to him.

“Hi Cub, the grass around your shop looks much nicer than all the mycelium. Blegh,” Scar grins as he stops to chat with his best friend.

Cub nods, “Yeah, it’s nice that hostile mobs won’t spawn…” internally he gasps, it’s pretty weird how the quartz shop makes him feel so much safer. 

“I don’t have to worry about lightning things up,” Scar laughs, “We don’t need the building inspectors to pay a call.”

“We don’t need that happening,” Cub agrees, Scar waves and continues on his way. Weeks pass and the odd feeling is quickly forgotten and ignored. Xisuma had warned the hermits about being careful with exploiting things because glitches have started popping up all over the place. Most hermits have started being more careful...

Grinning Cub places the last few honey blocks, “Perfect, people will really need to work on their honey sliding skills,” he snorts slightly as he jumps off landing in the end portal.

Instantly he’s hit with a wave of nausea. Claws dig into the obsidian… wait claws? Scrambling to a safer place Cub watches as his form seems to flicker between human and something else. 

Pushing the sheer terror down he huddles against one of the obsidian pillars. Fumbling his communicator out of his lab coat pocket, Cub paws at the device and manages to type something.

CubFan135: End  
CubFan135: hepl  
GoodTimesWithScar: I’m coming  
Xisuma: I’ll be there in a moment.

Taking a deep breath in Cub stares at his hands. Swallowing he starts trying to calm himself down. Realizing that whatever’s happening isn’t hurting he watches as dark scales start appearing. 

A burst of fireworks draws his attention up to where Xisuma hurried lands. The admin rushes over and kneels next to Cub, “Cub I need you to lay down.”

Nodding Cub moves over and lays down, “What’s happening?”

“Not sure yet, it looks like a glitch… not sure what it is though.”

“If it’s any help, this started happening when I went through the portal.”

Sitting back Xisuma hums, “Since you have scales I’m going to guess that it’s related to the dragon.”

Cub slowly nods, “Yeah…”

“When was the last time you were in the end?” Xisuma asks as he starts sifting through code.

“It was, oh, it was when I got the end crystals…”

“You didn’t summon the dragon fully?”

“I didn’t,” Cub swallows nervously as he flickers again, into what is now clearly a human-sized dragon, sans the wings and tail.

As Cub’s human form flickers back it's clear that bits and pieces are starting to stick around. Small nubs have grown and his teeth are starting to sharpen.

“Ok, I think I’ve got it,” Xisuma grins, “Like you said you disrupted the summoning process along with stealing the end Crystals. So with moving the crystals the dragon sorta glitched into being you.”

Gritting his teeth as something in his back twitches Cub exhales sharply, “I think that makes sense.”

Xisuma stands up, “Does anything hurt?”

After a moment Cub shakes his head no, “No, but everything feels fizzy? I don’t know how to describe it.”

Nodding Xisuma looks at his communicator, “Scar is stuck in the honey you put outside the portal.”

Laughing Cub rolls onto his back as a weird feeling washes over him. After a moment he sits up, “So uh, dragon,” As he says this he flickers into the dragon form, this time he’s got wings and a tail added on. Now fully in the dragon form Cub pushes himself to his feet as footsteps thud softly against the end stone.

“X, where’s Cub?” Scar asks looking up at the admin.

“Well, uh that’s him,” Xisuma explains as he points at the smallish dragon attempting to blend into the obsidian pillar.

“Oh. Cub, are you ok?” Scar murmurs softly as he walks up to his friend.

In response, Cub makes a soft chuffing sound and bumps his head against Scar’s.

“It’s like what happened to Impulse and Mumbo?”

Xisuma nods, “Yeah, he’s glitched.”

“Will he, will he ever turn back?”

“I believe he will. Once we get back to the overworld he’ll be ok,” Xisuma explains.

Cub huffs softly as he trips over his tail, as he continues to pad around in attempts to get used to everything his wings flair out. Now that they’ve moved it’s nearly impossible to keep them tucked back where they were before.

“We should probably wait for him to get used to this before we move,” Scar murmurs, “He needs to learn how to move.”

“Even if he doesn’t want to he’ll still have to come to the end at times.”

By this point, Cub is just a little annoyed that they keep talking like he’s not there. So he attempts to stand on his hind legs. He yelps as he falls forwards, wings flaring open. 

Scar giggles softly, “You ok there?”

Standing up Cub nudges Scar with his head. He chuffs softly and walks over to the bedrock pillar. Jumping up he neatly curls around it. 

Sighing Xisuma walks over, “I think we can get you home, was the last place you slept in the pyramid?”

At Cub’s nod, Xisuma continues, “Scar can you jump in first and head over to the pyramid?”

Nodding Scar jumps in, Xisuma looks over to Cub, “We’re going to go in a minute ok?”

Cub nods before jumping off the bedrock, he pads around collecting the different items he had dropped. Setting them down near the concerned admin. 

“Cub, how does this form feel?” Xisuma asks as Cub rubs his horns against the bedrock.

Tilting his head from side to side Cub chuffs. 

Xisuma smiles softly, “Yeah, you can head into the portal now.”

Tail flicking Cub lets himself fall into the portal. Moments later he sits up. Looking at his arms he grins. He’s back to normal… mostly there are a few patches of scales scattered around his body. 

“Ok, you probably just need to avoid the end, but if you notice anything else please tell me,” Xisuma says as he materializes nearby.

Cub nods, “Thanks for your help.”

“It’s no problem,” Xisuma grins, “Stay safe.”

“Will do,” Cub grins back.

“So, uh, These glitches…” Scar shrugs, “What did it feel like?”

Cub stretches in a very cat-like manner, “It’s interesting, it didn’t feel wrong but it wasn’t completely comfortable.”

Scar nods, “Well, the worst of it’s over now.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Cub murmurs, “I’ve got a feeling that this is only the beginning…”

As it turns out Cub was correct, the whole end dragon Business was just a small part of what had truly happened.

Picking his pickax up, Cub trudges down into his mines. He’s been running a bit low on diamonds and there’s not a reason to not go mining. 

The darkness swiftly engulfs Cub and before he can pull some torches out, “Wait, am I glowing?” He murmurs. 

A soft magenta glow is radiating off his skin. Casting odd shadows onto the tunnel walls. After a moment of thinking it becomes apparent that it’s probably related to his glitch. The end dragon always looks a little fuzzy and somewhat easy to spot in the inky dark void. 

Since it’s nothing too bad or crazy Cub simply shoots Xisuma a message saying what happened and he’s fine.

After a while of mining, Cub takes a break and eats some food. His food bar clicks up but the half heart of damage remains… It’s not healing. 

Drinking a small sip of a health potion fixes it so Cub just shrugs it off as a minor bug and sends Xisuma a message about it. If he’s not hurt by this there’s no reason to panic.

The admin seems unusually concerned about this, he tells Cub to come back to his base immediately.

Cub spins on his heel and rushes back to his base. When he gets back Xisuma sits him down, “We don’t know what’s going to happen but if food can’t heal you other things might stop working as well.”

Swallowing he stumbles back, “Crystals.”

Xisuma nods, “Exactly.”

Over the course of the next few weeks, Cub runs into more and more problems with healing. Damage that would heal overnight lingers and he relies on beacons on instant health potions. When they start to fail things start to get weird.

Slowly stumbling into the shopping district Cub frowns. It seems the more hurt he is the more he’s drawn to the... the garden.

“Oh,” Cub gasps, “That’ll do it,” The stolen end crystals. Soft warmth radiates off of them as Cub curls around the barrels. Slowly the beams of light move and Cub’s hearts slowly tick back up to full.

A soft chuffing purr rumbles in his chest as his form again flickers between human and dragon. Taking a deep breath Cub stabilizes his form and flicks his wings open. Leaping into the air he slowly spins around the garden. 

A clatter draws his attention.

“Cub?” Scar gasps as he squints at the winged man.

Cub drops from the air and some of the grass poofs when he lands, “Uh hi Scar. That was weird.”

“Yeah,” Scar nods, “Uh, you ok?”

Cub sighs, “I guess, this whole thing is super weird.”

Scar nods and helps him up, “Uh, did you get rid of the grass?”

“Shoot, Uh, call Xisuma?” Cub pants softly, a fine pinkish mist swirling around his mouth

“Yeah,” Scar mumbles, backing away from the mist, “Uh should we go back to your base?” 

Cub nods and awkwardly looks at his wing than at his elytra, “Let's fly low.”

As they get further from the immortal crystals something becomes apparent, some glitched patches aren’t leaving. His horns are sticking around as well as larger patches of scales. 

Flying over a small tree farm they spot Grian pulling uncomfortably at his sweater. It’s looking a lot bulkier than it normally does. When Grian notices them he quickly waves before darting back into his trees.

Settling down in the massive pyramid Cub watches as Xisuma lands on the entrance.

“Cub, what do you need help with?”

“Uh, it’s complicated,” Cub murmurs, “The dragon stuff just keeps sticking around and I don't know how to deal with it.”

“That will come with time I guess,” Xisuma murmurs.

Scar speaks up, “And uh dragon’s breath?”

“Yeah I was upset and that happened.”

Xisuma nods, “Well I can’t promise anything but that shouldn’t really hurt anything.”

“One more thing that I've noticed is that all the dragon bits stick around. What if I get stuck as a dragon?”

“Well they are trying to fix the glitches so it wouldn’t be permanent,” Xisuma explains, “It would be reversible.”

Cub grins relieved, “Thanks.”  


**Author's Note:**

> I hope you have enjoyed reading <3


End file.
